Scott Polar Research InstituteGrants awarded: 2018
The Gino Watkins Memorial Fund, under the joint trusteeship of the University of Cambridge and the Royal Geographical Society, gives grants towards expeditions that meet its objectives of guiding and inspiring enterprising people towards scientific research and exploration in the polar regions.
The Committee of Managers of the Fund would like to thank the Augustine Courtauld Trust for their generous contribution of £9,000. The members of the Committee who served during the year were Dr L Craig (Chair), Professor I Campbell, Professor J Dowdeswell, Mr R Durbridge, Mr D Fordham, Dr D Goodman, Mr N Gwynne, Dr M Humphreys, Professor M Lea, Mr R Page, Professor R C Schroter, and Dr M Tinsley.
The Committee met on the 24 February 2018 and made the following awards:
| Expedition | Report | Description | Award |
|---|---|---|---|
| Artist in Residence, Western Greenland. | Postponed | Visual arts residency, based primarily in Kunstmuseum, Ilulissat, Greenland, Feb-March 2018. | £1,000 |
| Greenland North Liverpool Land Independent Group Expedition, 2018. | Final report | To further explore the mountains and glaciers of North Liverpool Land, by ski mountaineering and to make alpine-style first ascents of unclimbed peaks. | £2,500 |
| Unfinished business – a sea kayak journey to the 1931 BAARE base camp, East Greenland, 2018. | Final report | Travel south from Tasiilaq, by kayak and establish a base in Nattivit Fjord at the site of the original BAARE base. Establish a route onto the ice cap in line with the original used by Gino Watkins team members in 1930. |
£3,000 Simpson Award |
| Controls on the biogeochemical cycling of Nitrogen: A study of the Greenland Ice Sheet, 2018. | Final report | Leverhulme funded project to investigate biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen beneath glaciers, to improve the understanding of the role of ice sheets in nitrogen cycling. | £500 |
| Oxford University Liverpool Land Expedition, 2018. | Final report | To understand the history of a subducted slice of continental crust in Liverpool Land in north east Greenland, carrying out geological mapping at multiple scales and collecting data and samples on the Tvaerdal Plateau. | £3,000 |
| Moskus Expedition 2018: the Stauning Alps, eastern Greenland. | Final report | To climb at least two unclimbed peaks and to conduct climate change-related scientific research and glaciological study of the Roslin Glacier. | £2,000 + £2,000 Arctic Club = £4,000 |
| Green Zero expedition, southern Greenland, 2018. | Postponed | To kite ski, unsupported, the 2500km from Narsarsuaq, southern Greenland across the Greenlandic ice cap to Qaanaaq in north eastern Greenland, whilst leaving zero environmental impact. | £2,000 + £3,000 Arctic Club = £5,000 |
| South Greenland geological mapping and education expedition, St Anne's College, University of Oxford, 2018. | Final report | To use documentation of a geological mapping expedition in south Greenland as a method of engaging with young people about the role of resource management in the Arctic. | £3,000 |
| The South Georgia Archaeological Project: investigating the history of sealing, February 2019. | Preliminary report | To provide the first baseline understanding of the character (scale, layout and date) and preservation of South Georgia's earliest occupation and industrial sites: seal hunting and processing camps. | £2,500 |
| Supraglacial rock avalanches as a source of nutrients for glacial and extra-glacial ecosystems, Glacier Bay NP, Alaska | Final report | To investigate large rock avalanches onto glacier surfaces, and their ability to transport nutrients to glacial environments. | £1,500 |
| A woman at 80 degrees, 83 years on, Svalbard | Postponed | To promote historic and modern female expedition endeavours and women in the Arctic in the centenary year of women's rights. | £2,000 + £3,000 Arctic Club = £5,000 |